Careful planning takes time. It is easy to miss out this stage and just start doing things. However, time spent planning is never wasted. Good planning also helps to check on progress.
Gaining experience in good planning will not only help the community to succeed, it will also help a lot in gaining the interest and approval of outside authorities and donors if needed. Remember the dreams that people have for this area. Some of them may need outside help and money. Any group that has kept careful records of their activities and learnt how to write short reports will find it much easier to gain help for bigger plans in the future.
There are some key questions to ask when you begin to plan:
- What is our wider vision?
- What is the particular problem we are tackling first?
- What are we hoping to achieve?
- Who are we going to do it with?
- How will the work be done and what resources are needed?
Discussion
- There is a saying: ‘Someone who fails to plan, plans to fail.’ Discuss your own experiences in this. Do you agree?
- Form a committee and elect people to take on different responsibilities, including others from the community with particular skills or interest in the issue. Plan to meet together regularly so that everyone knows what is going on. For example, if health is the priority, invite clinic staff, local health workers and government health officials to the committee. If education is the priority, make sure that teachers, head teachers, parents and education officials are on the committee.
- Practice using the questions opposite, on a small example. Choose a simple task as an example, such as making a cup of tea for a visitor. With the help of these questions make a plan of action. Work in small groups. Discuss the results and agree together on the best wording.
- Now return to the priority agreed by the community and write this out in the same way.
- Gaining enthusiasm for change has taken a long time. Make sure that this is not lost. It is vital that some changes happen very quickly to maintain people’s enthusiasm and commitment. As people see things happening, so they will be willing to continue and maybe even increase their efforts. Discuss all that needs to be done to support this process.
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